Today’s Top Stories
1. Trying to calm rumors about his health (reports say he’s improving), Mahmoud Abbas released photos from his Ramallah hospital. One of the photos shows him reading a Palestinian newspaper, Al-Haya Al-Jadeda, featuring an ugly, antisemitic cartoon from the, uh, poison pen of Mohammad Sabaaneh featuring an Israeli soldier snatching a baby’s bottle and feeding it poison. Times of Israel coverage.
The cartoon was addressing the disputed death of Layla Ghandour an eight month-old baby who Palestinians said was killed after inhaling tear gas during Gaza border clashes. A Gaza doctor said the baby’s death was likely due to a pre-existing medical condition.
Abbas' office published these photos showing him in hospital, in order to show that he is well.
Zoom in on the racist cartoon on the backpage of the PA's OFFICIAL paper, reminiscent of Nazi cartoons.
The "moderate" leader made sure that anti-Semitism is alive & well in the PA. pic.twitter.com/wpIs5dl8aV
— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) May 22, 2018
One scholar accused Abbas of deliberately choosing to be photographed with that cartoon:
Edy Cohen, chairman of the Kedem Forum for Middle East Studies, told The Algemeiner, “I just spoke with several people very close to Mahmoud Abbas, and it was explicitly told to me that Abbas picked the only [newspaper] where that cartoon was large. … So I understand that he chose it deliberately, because we’re talking about the biggest cartoon there was, so it would be seen. It’s a subliminal message.”
2. The Times of Israel reports the Trump administration is considering taking action against Palestinian diplomats in Washington following the PA’s request to the International Criminal Court to investigate what the Palestinians say are IDF war crimes during the Gaza border clashes.
According to a US law passed in December 2015, the Palestinian Authority is subject to penalties if it pursues the prosecution of Israelis at the Hague-based ICC. One of those ramifications includes the closing of their diplomatic mission to the United States, run by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“We are reviewing this latest development to determine if it requires changes to the operating status of the PLO office in Washington, D.C., which has been limited to activities related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians since November 2017,” a National Security Council spokesperson said.
3. Eurovision cast doubt over next year’s singing contest in Israel with a tweet telling fans not to book flights yet. The Times of Israel reports:
It was not clear if the public statement was suggesting that Eurovision is reconsidering whether to hold the event in Israel, as required by the organization’s tradition of having the nation of each year’s winner host the contest the following year.
A Eurovision spokesperson contacted by The Times of Israel declined to provide details on what exactly about the location and timing was in doubt.
Are you already looking forward to next year’s #Eurovision? Us too! But don’t go booking your flights just yet, for official updates on where and when it’ll take place, keep an eye out for announcements on our official channels.
?: Thomas Hanses pic.twitter.com/O2sp3WOXvJ— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 22, 2018
Meanwhile, Irish singer Donna McCaul told the Irish Sun she’s willing to perform in next year’s Eurovision and even take “grief” from boycotting musicians.
4. The Guardian Corrects Eurovision Tel Aviv Claim: While Israel looks forward to hosting Eurovision 2019, we put The Guardian straight about Jerusalem being the Israeli capital.
Israel and the Palestinians
• French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe cancelled a visit to Israel scheduled for the end of May. Ynet reports that Philippe’s office cited “domestic policy matters to be tended to in the coming days. But Israeli officials believe it was cancelled because of how the French public would perceive the visit so soon after the recent Gaza border clashes.
• Overnight Israeli air strikes destroyed a Hamas tunnel and two of its boats in a port. The strikes were in retaliation for a group of Palestinians managing to cross the Israel-Gaza border fence and setting fire to an empty IDF post. More at Haaretz.
• Israel is urging farmers near Gaza border to harvest wheat early due to threat of burning kites.
• The European Union denied reports that it agreed to fund repairs on the Kerem Shalom border crossing. During the Gaza border clashes, Palestinians on several occasions destroyed equipment and infrastructure on the Gaza side of the crossing. Fuel and humanitarian aid transferred from Israel to the Strip is transferred through Kerem Shalom.
• Following Egypt’s announcement that it’s opening the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the month of Ramadan, the Wall St. Journal (click via Twitter) visited the border crossing, where Palestinians are queuing up to leave the Strip — and never return.
• i24 News reports 22 injured Gazans evacuated to Jordan in Israeli-coordinated operation. “The medical evacuations, the third in a week, was made at the request of Jordan’s King Abdullah II . . .”
• A judge issued a temporary injunction against Israeli Interior Ministry efforts to deport a Human Rights Watch official accused of supporting BDS. Omar Shakir, a US citizen, will be allowed to remain in Israel for the duration of legal proceedings. More at the Washington Post.
This is the first time that Israel is applying the law against a person already inside country; in previous instances, BDS activists seeking to enter the country have been blocked. If Shakir is expelled, critics say, it places Israel in a highly undesirable group of nations that have banned human rights activists.
• US Ambassador David Friedman was photographed with poster of the Temple Mount with the Jewish Temple replacing the Dome of the Rock. The embassy said the poster was thrust in front of the ambassador when the photo was taken. Achiya, a Bnai Brak Orthodox non-profit organization apologized for an employee’s “cheap political act.” More at the Times of Israel and Haaretz.
The press flub over the David Friedman episode in J’lem today is a perfect example of the trap of social media. A picture circulates, no one in the US press has any idea what it means, the false interpretation makes the rounds, voila. Why don’t ppl trust the press?
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) May 23, 2018
• In bid to buy influence, Turkey hands out money and Turkish flags to eastern Jerusalem residents and businesses.
• “Unidentified vandals in the West Bank set fire to an Israeli cherry orchard and a Palestinian wheat field before dawn on Wednesday in apparent arson incidents, causing thousands of shekels in damage,” reports the Times of Israel.
• Two senior Angolan diplomats were sacked for attending the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Window into Israel
• Because of conflicts of interest stemming from several corruption investigations of the prime minister and people surrounding him, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit implied that Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be involved in appointing new police commissioner or extending the term of current top cop Roni Alsheich, according to reports in Ynet and the Jerusalem Post. Alsheich’s three-year term ends in December. It’s not expected that he will be renewed for another term.
• Israel’s security cabinet will start meeting in an underground bunker. This has Israeli media reports “suggesting it could point to preparations for a possible escalation of hostilities with Iran,” and help prevent leaks to the media.
• Israel is set to advance legislation nationalizing land secretly sold by the church. Haaretz reports that the bill’s sponsor, MK Rachel Azaria, “negotiated with both the Foreign Ministry and church representatives to calm tensions surrounding the move” and removed all references to the role of churches in the controversial real estate deals.
Around the World
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana governor issues executive order prohibiting state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel.
• The Dutch broadcaster that aired a spoof of Israel’s Eurovision song insisted the parody was not antisemitic, but declined to answer questions about the parody’s content which sparked the criticism.
• Responding to ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone’s resignation from the UK Labour Party, British Jewish leaders responded by saying there is still too much antisemitism within the party to say the problem is resolved.
• BDS is claiming victory as Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil cancelled a July appearance in Israel.”Although Gil made no reference to the BDS movement or the recent violence in Gaza, pro-boycott Palestinian activists swiftly took to their website to celebrate the news and draw the connection to the so-called “March of return” in Gaza.”
• Humanities students at Chile’s largest public university voted to endorse an academic boycott of Israel.
Commentary/Analysis
• I’ve said for years that news services skewing coverage of Israel are just as capable of warping coverage of other areas of coverage. Danny Seaman, the former director of Israel’s Government Press Office takes that point a step further, arguing that years of biased Mideast coverage has damaged media credibility to the point that it is indeed vulnerable to accusations of “fake news.”
The media is a key tool – often a willing accomplice – to this strategy. The manipulation of the rhetoric by human rights groups is all too often typeset in the media, and thus chiseled into history. Massacres are proclaimed where there have been none; terrorists cowering behind civilians remain hidden from the public eye.
The foreign media has been reporting on the conflict here for over 50 years. They should, in the very least, maintain a measure of caution when reporting on events. If only because of the numerous examples of reports over the years on atrocities and abuses supposedly carried out by Israelis that eventually were exposed as false . . .
The epidemic of fake news started with the media failure to uphold professional standards of journalism in covering the conflict here. The Cradle of Religions is also the Cradle of “Fake News”.
• The Labour Party’s promise to cast aside the international definition of antisemitism and come up with its own “better version” is an insult to the Jewish community.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yoni Ben Menachem: The mystery of Mahmoud Abbas’ health
– Reuven Berko: Semi-requiem for a failed leader
– Judah Ari Gross: Israel lost the PR battle over Gaza. Was it unwinnable or just mismanaged?
– Jonathan Tobin: Gaza virtue signaling is not virtuous
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians: Americans now legitimate targets
– Barbara Kay: Hamas will always win the PR war even as Israel wins military victories
– Dan Diker: Why has South Africa fallen for Hamas’ darkness and deception?
– Seth Frantzman: Gaza: A look back at how we got here
– Alex Ryvchin: A ‘calculus of death’: Hamas’ propaganda war in Gaza
– Efraim Halevy: Israel’s grand strategy and the return of Russia as a Great Power
– Raphael Ahren: No guns blazing, Pompeo demands Iran’s unconditional surrender
– Robert Philpot: Ken Livingstone departs Labour, but may have the last laugh on British Jews
– Olli Heinonen and Jacob Nagel: Deal or no deal, the IAEA must monitor Iran’s nuclear program
Featured image: CC BY Joe Shlabotnik Alsheikh via Wikimedia Commons; Louisiana CC BY-NC-ND Billy Metcalf Photography;
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